Every year since 2016, I’ve written about the best books from my previous year of life.

(Last three: 38th Year, 37th Year, 36th Year).

These are the best 5 books I read in my 39th year (plus three more, lightening round style).

My request from you:

• Let me know what you think
• Tell me the best book you read last year
• Give me a hug when you see me

Beijos,

Justy

–

(1) The Best Book Overall

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

✅ GOOD AUDIO EXPERIENCE ✅

In 1900, human flight was impossible.

Some were attempting it. They were divided into two camps: the government and kooks. If you didn’t have millions of dollars or a death wish, it wasn’t you.

That is, unless you were two bicycle shop owners in rural Ohio with basic mechancial knowledge, and a respect for learning and optimism instilled in your by your conservative parents. That was Orville and Wilbur Wright.

But here’s the question: With no money, no experience, and most people calling them crazy, how did the Wright Brothers convince themselves otherwise? How did they get themselves to believe they could do it?

David McCoughlough tells that story:

“It wasn’t luck that made them fly; it was hard work and common sense; they put their whole heart and soul and all their energy into an idea and they had the faith.”

This book covers my favorite theme: Zero to Hero. Show me how to get from nothing to something, and that something can be anything. It doesn’t matter if you built business, crafted a comedy career, or whittled an alter out of beach wood—i’m in. Because just by reading about how they did it, you know a little more about how you’re going to do it—whatever your “it” may be. 

For a quick article about one, genius trick the Wright Brothers’ pulled off to figure out flight, take a look at my substack article here.

Otherwise, maybe you’re more of a billionaire type…

(2)The best book about a nothing to something in business and investments.

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

✅ GOOD AUDIO EXPERIENCE ✅

Three takeaways from this book:

(1) Buffett always wanted to be rich.

Like Mark Cuban, Felix Dennis, or Charlie Munger, or basically all very rich people, rich was not an accident—it was a lifelong goal. Buffett’s dad was a stockbroker- turned – politician who got crushed in the great depression. This inspired Warren by inverse: he would never be poor again.

He then read this book, One Thousand Ways To Make $1,000, which set him on a path from which he never wavered. When he was just about 10, he told people he’d be a millionaire at 30 (~$20mm today). He was right.

My point: It wasn’t an accident—it was a two-decade target.

(2) Buffett got good at business by doing business.

Quick analogy: People think Billy Joel was a prodigy.

Then they realize both of his parents were singers and performers, that he started with piano lessons when he was a toddler, and he felt like an outsider living in a tiny protestant town as the only Jewish family with divorced parents. So he practiced piano and read books all the time. So, at age 27 when he was on top of the world, was he a “prodigy” we can’t understand, or did he do it in a very understandable way: practiced and focused for 20 years?

The same is true for Buffet.

Buffett’s dad taught him stocks and not to be poor. He learned young about compounding and making money as a toddler (stop me if you’ve heard this one). He saw that the earlier he started, the bigger the inevitable “snowball” would grow. So, he started a bunch of tiny businesses: magazines, gum, arcade games, and golf balls.

Bottom line: He didn’t just begin good. He practiced to get there.

(3) Buffett “greatest skill he ever learned” was something outside of investing.

Buffett read a book, How To Win Friends and Influence People, and then took several Dale Carnegie seminars to learn how to speak in public and how to deal with people. He considers this—how to deal with, talk to, listen to, and nudge people without criticizing them or telling them what to do—as valuable as anything he’s ever done.

To learn more about Buffet’s million dollar idea, here’s my article.

Or maybe you’re more of an industrial titan sorta person….

(3) The best autobio about a nothing to something industrial tycoon

Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Carnegie

✅ GOOD AUDIO EXPERIENCE ✅

Here was one big key from this book.

We hear a lot about diversification. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” “Don’t bet it all on one horse” “Spread your risk.”

But Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest people in history, advises the opposite.

Carnegie made some money raising up the ranks of the railroad and then looked to put it to work: he made some investments, got involved in various ventures, etc.

But, eventually, he cut off those other endeavors:

“ I had become interested, with my friends of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in building some railways in the Western States, but gradually withdrew from all such enterprises and made up my mind to go entirely contrary to the adage not to put all one’s eggs in one basket.

I determined that the proper policy was ‘to put all good eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.’”

It actually turned out to be more of a ‘barbell strategy.’

At first, his focus was widening: various jobs for the railroad, investments in properties, materials, and businesses, whatever he felt interested in or was going to do well. Finally, he found steel, and when he was pretty sure steel was a very, very good bet, he decided to shut everything else down. He narrowed focus. That’s where this basket thing comes in. Then, after becoming rich on steel, he diversified again later.

For more on what Carnegie called “the true road to preeminent success,” read here.

Or maybe you’re more of a greatest female scientist of all time sort of person…

(4) The best bio of a nothing to something two-time Nobel laureate

Madame Curie: A Biography by Eve Curie

✅ GOOD AUDIO EXPERIENCE ✅

Everyone knows resiliency is good, but Marie Curie taught me a different side of it.

What you learn from Curie—one of just five scientists ever to win two Nobel prizes—is not only how to get bounce back from hard times, not just to get through them, but to enjoy them.

As her daughter wrote:

“Yes, these four heroic years were, not the happiest of Marie Curie’s life, but the most perfect in her eyes, the nearest to those summits of the human mission toward which her gaze had been trained. When one is young and solitary and swallowed up in study, one can ‘not have enough to live on’ – and yet live to the fullest. An immense enthusiasm gave this girl of twenty-six the power to ignore the trials and privations she endured; to magnify her sordid existence into magic.”

To magnify her sordid existence into magic. I love that.

It’s hard to imagine going from less than Curie had to more–from lower than her depths to higher than her heights. But if you want to get a sense for the thought process of doing so, and hopefully gain a little bit of that toughness for yourself, read this book.

For more on that mentality, read this post.

Or maybe you don’t want resiliency, you just want to learn how to start a business…

(5) The Best Book on Entrepreneurship Recommended by A Great Entrepreneur

Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0 by Jim Collins and William Lazier

✅ GOOD AUDIO EXPERIENCE ✅

Reid Hastings, the Netflix founder, was asked what advice he has generally for young CEOs and founders.

His answer: “I would say memorize the first 86 pages of Jim Collins’ first book, Beyond Entrepreneurship.” I immediately bought it and then one for my cofounder.  

One of my favorite ideas: bullets and cannonballs:

“First, you fire bullets (low-cost, low-risk, low-distraction experiments) to figure out what will work—calibrating your line of sight by taking small shots. Then, once you have empirical validation, you fire a cannonball (concentrating resources into a big bet) on the calibrated line of sight.”

In other words: test, test, test…. invest.

Lightening Round: 3 more great books and one great thing about them

(1) Peak  by Robert Pool and Anders Ericsson

Ericsson was the dude behind the 10,000 hour rule.

But if you read Grit, Outliers, or have heard of this rule, why read this book?

That question kept me from reading this book for a number of years. Dumb.

I learned so much from this book, but to focus on just one point: it highlighted the importance of coaching for most peak performers (and made me question why I don’t have, like, 10 coaches).

“Even the most motivated and intelligent student will advance more quickly under the tutelage of someone who knows the best order in which to learn things, who understands and can demonstrate the proper way to perform various skills, who can provide useful feedback, and who can devise practice activities designed to overcome particular weaknesses.”

(2) How Not To Age by Dr. Michael Greger

(✅ GOOD AUDIO EXPERIENCE ✅)

If you can get past the idea that Dr. Greger has a vegan bias (i.e., understand that the advice will skew towards plant-based eating) you will get a ton of value from him because (1) he bases his points in science and (2) he’s funny. I read a few longevity books this year, including Peter Attia’s book, Outlive, but this one was the best for info + readability.

One takeaway from this book: spermidine (scientific review).  

Spermidine is a well-studied longevity source I didn’t know about. It’s in tempeh, tofu, mushrooms, peas, and wheat germ, and it can help restore immune function in cells overtime.

(3) Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

FBI Negotiator with practical tips on how to get what you want. One practical tip I cover in this article: Label the negative.

“List the worst things that the other party could say about you and say them before the other person can. Performing an accusation audit in advance prepares you to head off negative dynamics before they take root. And because these accusations often sound exaggerated when said aloud, speaking them will encourage the other person to claim that quite the opposite is true.”

Call it the B-Rabbit.

Secret Bonus: The Best Thing I Read Last Year Wasn’t A Book

Ok, that’s it. If you got to the end, you’re in luck.

Because the best thing I read last year wasn’t a book at all, it was a long-form article. If you haven’t read Paul Graham’s article, How To Do Great Work, you must.

You can start with my Substack on how to be original.